Sen. Collins: Does prostitution scandal indicate systemic problem?

The ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee released a statement detailing what she’d learned during a Monday evening briefing by Secret Service director Mark Sullivan on the scandal.

"He told me that there are 11 Secret Service agents and officers involved. Some 20 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel in Colombia, but allegedly Marines were involved with the rest," Collins said in a statement released Tuesday. She told reporters that there were "20-21" women at the hotel and that the agents in question were "uniformed personnel who were assigned to building security, others were the specialized agents who do security details."

"Director Sullivan is rightly appalled by the actions of these Secret Service personnel and is pursuing a vigorous internal investigation," she said in the statement. He ordered all the agents and officers to return to Washington immediately, and all have been interviewed."

Collins said she raised the following questions with Sullivan and said he has "committed to keeping me updated, and I am confident that he will fully investigate these troubling issues as well as pursue appropriate action against those involved should the allegations prove true."

"1. Who were these women? Could they have been members of groups hostile to the United States? Could they have planted bugs, disabled weapons, or in any other ways jeopardized security of the President or our country?

"2. Is there any evidence of previous misconduct by these or any other agents on other missions?

"3. Given the number of personnel involved, does this indicate a problem with the culture of the Secret Service?

Collins told reporters that she was troubled by the apparent risks to security.

"We don't know who these women are," she said. "They could be spies. They could be associated with hostile forces. They could have disabled the agents weapons or planted listening devices or in other ways breach security. It is very serious."

Collins said that Sullivan told her that "the most important quality for a Secret Service officer is character - and if the facts prove to be as reported on this, this is an incredible lack of character and breach of security and potentially extremely serious."

POLITICO's Manu Raju contributed to this report. This post has been updated.